Haiti Postpones Presidential Runoff as Violence Rises

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Protesters on Friday in the Pétionville area of Port-au-Prince. Electoral officials did not announce a new date for the vote or explain what happens after the current president’s term ends on Feb. 7.CreditBahare Khodabande/European Pressphoto Agency

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A runoff election to choose the next president of Haiti was delayed on Friday, less than 48 hours before it was to take place, as protesters who expected a rigged outcome began to block roads and burn voting centers.

Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, has been mired in an election-related political impasse since October, when 54 candidates ran for president in a race that opposition leaders and human rights groups said was mired in fraud.

The current president’s handpicked successor, Jovenel Moïse, a banana exporter who was a virtual unknown in Haiti, officially came in first with 32.8 percent of the vote. Jude Célestin, a former state construction company official who was ousted from the 2010 race after election fraud, came in second with 25 percent. Mr. Célestin has refused to campaign and was boycotting the second round.

“Today is a victory for the democratic sector in Haiti and Haitians everywhere who are struggling for true democracy, good governance and an end to corrupt practices,” Mr. Célestin said through a spokesman. “May God bless Haiti.” Mr. Moïse’s spokeswoman said he was in meetings and was not available for comment.

Rights organizations said the October election had been deeply troubled, because more than 900,000 political party monitors were accredited to observe the voting, in a process that was poorly supervised and paved the way for people to cast multiple ballots. The indelible ink to mark voters’ thumbs took hours to appear, and party militants with the special accreditations took advantage of that window to vote over and over, the groups alleged. Party poll watchers cast more than half the nation’s votes.

But the United States and the Organization of American States said their observers did not see widespread trickery, and a scientific quick count method showed the results of the race were accurate, despite the problems with the first round of voting. The Obama administration has expressed concern that if a successor was not elected, the result would be an unconstitutional power vacuum. American diplomats were criticized here for pressuring Haiti to push forward, despite the widespread belief that the electoral council had designed the electoral process to facilitate fraud. The State Department did not respond on Friday afternoon to a request for comment on the runoff delay.

The president, Michel J. Martelly, insisted that opposition groups had exaggerated claims of fraud for political purposes and as recently as Thursday night, addressed the nation to encourage residents to vote.

On Friday, Pierre Louis Opont, president of the Provision Electoral Council, said the election would be postponed indefinitely because masked gunmen had fired upon electoral officials, arsonists burned down two electoral offices in Port-au-Prince and had attempted to burn a school in the south used as a polling center.

Mr. Opont said workers transporting ballots were robbed of election materials. Many threats also came in by phone, he said.

“We have a responsibility to secure the population,” he said. “We announce there won’t be an election, because too much menace and violence that lays ahead.”

Sporadic bursts of violence continued in Port-au-Prince even after the announcement, as packs of protesters threw rocks in Pétionville, home to the city’s elite. Gunshots could be heard as rocks were pelted at buildings. Protesters in the capital marched in the streets, promising stepped up violence and vowing that “guns would become legal” by evening. Many people demanded the president’s resignation.

In Delmas 75, a Port-au-Prince neighborhood, one man proudly displayed bullets to the growing crowd, holding three in his mouth and two in his raised arms.

“They lost control of the streets,” said Simon Desras, a former senator. “They were planning to organize an election for one candidate. Jovenel running against Mr. Jovenel.”

The electoral council did not announce a date for the new election or explain what steps would be taken after Feb. 7, when the current president’s mandate ends. The political parties could not reach a compromise on who would take over, in a situation the United States had described as unconstitutional and “de facto.” Members of the opposition refused to allow Mr. Martelly to extend his term, while the president balked at any proposed alternatives.

“This is the time for all sectors to come with an agreement that allows the process to go forward and to have a new president elected freely and fairly,” said Reginald Boulos, a past president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who had tried to negotiate an accord. “The president and the Parliament have to show that Haitians can find a solution without outside intervention.”

The race had been scheduled for late December, but was postponed so that an electoral commission could examine a portion of the tally sheets. The commission found errors and troubling signs — such as voters who lacked an identification number — in a vast majority of the sheets.

Correction:

An article on Saturday about the postponement of a contested presidential runoff election in Haiti gave an outdated position for Reginald Boulos at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who urged “all sectors” to reach an agreement. He is a past president, no longer president.

Abraham Pierre contributed reporting.

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